The Argentine victims were from the city of Rosario, and were visiting New York for a school reunion, the foreign ministry said.

The Argentinian government is “deeply shocked by the death of the compatriots and is working to help the relatives and friends of the victims,” the foreign ministry said, declining to indicate how many of its nationals had died.

“Argentina reaffirms its strongest condemnation of terrorist acts and violence in all its manifestations and reiterates the need to deepen the fight against this scourge,” it added in the statement.

A man in a rented pickup truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists along a busy bike path near the World Trade Center memorial on Tuesday, killing at least eight and seriously injuring 11 in what the mayor called “a particularly cowardly act of terror.”

The driver was shot in the abdomen by police after jumping out of the truck with what turned out to be a fake gun in each hand and shouting what witnesses said was “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” authorities said. The man underwent surgery and was in critical condition but was expected to survive.